Thrilling impetus

José Serebrierconducts Glazunov -
reviewed byHOWARD SMITH

It doesn't seem that long since Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was largely neglected by major western record companies. His delightful yet slender violin concerto and The Seasons were done to death. And that was it.

The best we had from the 'old' Russia, though now hard to come by, were Rozhdestvensky's powerful reading of all eight symphonies from the former USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra.

More recently the gaping vacuum has been filled; Glazunov's 6th Symphony appeared coupled with Raymonda in an adequate LSO reading on ASV and Stenka Razin was heard alongside Symphony No 3 with the same team.

Then, true to form, Naxos did us proud with a consistently impressive complete cycle featuring the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Alexander Anissimov.

More recently Chandos has come onboard with a further Russian line-up; Valéry Polyansky and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra (its home ground name ; the Symphony Capella of Russia).